Mojave Winds
by BreatheSoftly
Summary: Estil North, a new adventurer, finds herself in the company of one Raul Tejada as they trek across the Mojave wasteland together. The wasteland, a harsh mistress, throws challenges before the two that could either rip them apart, bond them together, or leave them as two more unknown skeletons wasting away in the ancient sands. (OC involved, might include shipping in the future)
1. Chapter 1

"You know, Boss, most gals your age are out on the town flaunting their stuff on Saturday nights." There was a pause as he poked his head out from behind the flipped table and drew back in quickly as more gunshots were fired. "Not cornered in a hot room with a ghoul and raiders."

Estil looked up from reloading her six-cylinder pistols and grinned at Raul. Dirt was smudged across her face along with blood, hers and otherwise. She looked back down to her pistols, wide brim of her cowboy hat working well to hide her face. "Most girls my age aren't as good of a shot as me." She finished up with her pistols. "Alright, you take right, I'll go left and we'll kill these bitches."

He didn't have time to argue or make any comment about his knees before she was up. She spun on the balls of her feet to face the raiders, her old, leather, cowboy boots making a distinctive clicking sound when she finished her movement. She was powerful in her stance, feet wide, arms stretched far. Raul's knees creaked when he stood, lacking her gusto, and turned as well to find that her guns were already exploding, shots hitting a raider nearly each time.

He vaguely noted, as his quick hands drew his own guns, that she wasn't a half bad shot. He fired, blowing a clean hole in a particularly nasty piece of work. With a bit of training she might be half as good as him, of course, something like that would require some personal training.

Using two hundred years of control, he let his thoughts die away into gunfire before they took a turn for the worse. The room, small dark and dank, was echoing with gunfire and sounds of agony as the raiders fell. Raul shoved his pistol back into its holster and looked to his travel buddy, one Estil North.

Estil took a moment before putting her pistols up as well, she walked forward, movements a little more stagnate then they had been. She looked down at the raiders but couldn't bring herself to loot the bodies, Raul could see the hesitation, the way her moral system kicked in a little too hard and pushed her out of the room without so much as grabbing a single cap. He gave a low chuckle before following her; she really was just a kid.

They pushed their way out of the small gas station and out into the cool Mojave night. The air was clean and crisp compared to the musk and blood that had clouded the station and their noses, the change made them take in deep clean breaths. Raul didn't care what anyone said, you could smell a rotted human body every day of your life and you would never get used to the smell. That was one thing that impressed him; she never even came close to gagging at such things.

"Hey boss," he stepped towards her, the full moon allowing a clear view of the twenty-something year old.

Estil had been looking out across the vast desert, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her warn and ripped jeans. It took her a moment to acknowledge him, her mind beginning to slow with the need for sleep. "What's up, Raul?"

"Are you feeling alright?"

She looked back at him then, deep shadows cast across her usually attractive features. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

He motioned vaguely to her torso. "You seem to be a bullet magnet, is all."

It was then she looked down. Her torso, clad in a not-so-white undershirt and a button up plaid piece sported curious hoes that were scorched around the edges. Blood was seeping out of her and staining the garments with an ease that nearly mocked her. She took in a sharp breath, to hold in a scream in agony as the pain started to set in, lighting her muscles on fire like a bad injection of Psycho.

Half an hour later the two unlikely partners were sitting by a half-assed fire, her bloodied shirts had been pulled off and replaced by the last of their bandages after she had pulled the bullets out. She was sifting through her backpack, trying not to bend too much as she looked for a shirt that hadn't been totally ruined.

"Raul, can you please give me some more med-x?" Estil looked from her bag to the ghoul who sat a few steps away from her, his fingers working on opening a box of Fancy Lad snack cakes.

He didn't bother looking up from the box that held everything good in the world. He knew she'd be looking at him with those soft eyes, trying to make him bend to her will; there was no reason to even bother. "Sorry, Boss," he frowned at the box as it continued to deny him access, "you've already had enough to numb a Deathclaw."

Estil gave a frustrated sigh as she pulled on another shirt, a large old tee-shirt she had taken from home before trekking out. The shifting it took to get it on wasn't worth the effort in the end when she was left sitting, trying not to hiss from the pain that was still in the process of being numbed. She placed a hand on her torso, feeling the thin bandages under the stained shirt.

"Don't suppose we got any stims?" The southern drawl was tense in her voice.

The ghoul gave a happy chuckle as the Fancy Lad box gave way to his teeth and he was presented with cleanly wrapped cakes. "Ran out yesterday, Boss, you have a way about making things want to hurt you, you know."

Sighing, the young woman admitted defeat and slowly made her way to lay down on the blanket she lovingly called a 'bed'. When she was left staring up at the sky, a sky so dark that the stars were like drops of light and hope, something settled within her. After leaving home mere weeks ago and stumbling upon Raul they had never stopped moving, never stopped trying to survive and just make it. The sky, well that calmed her, the sense of something being stable for thousands of years humbled her, if only for the rare moment.

"Can you grab the first watch, Raul?" The med-x was really kicking in, her own voice sounded hollow in her head and it felt like her mouth was full of tar when she tried to speak.

"Staying up late while you sleep to watch for murderers and nasty creatures? Sounds like a vacation, Boss." He licked the sweet cream from one of his cakes off of his thumb and heard an airy laugh before everything on her side of the humble camp fell still and he was left with a crackling, dying, fire.


	2. Chapter 2

Hope you guys enjoy, if there are any mistakes please point them out. Any and all commentary is welcome.

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Estil gave a slight gasp when she woke up, blinded by the bright Mojave sun. Groaning in a renewed pain she blindly felt for her hat, putting it on her face once she found it. She could faintly hear Raul chuckle somewhere to her right, but it wasn't enough for her to really give it any thought, not that she truly could in her state.

"Glad to see you're awake, Boss," Raul's voice was hovering over her, "here I thought I might have lost ya."

"Ain't so easy to get rid'a me, sweetie." Her horse voice responded, rasping as if she was the ghoul. In that moment, her body still trying to clear out the med-x as well as deal with the pain, she wasn't quite sure if she was really awake at all.

"I'll keep that in mind if I ever plan on murdering you. Come on, you've slept in, we gotta get going unless you intend for us to bake out here."

Usually, it was the young gun who was trying to wake Raul up. She'd nudge him with her boot a few times, or poke his rotted cheek until he finally caved and made himself sit up. It was strange, almost, how they so easily fell into opposite roles.

She groaned, more for theatrical purposes than anything, dropping her arms to fold across her hat. "What time is it?"

"Oh jut around ten in the morning," he had leaned down a little bit to make sure she could hear him, casually putting his hands into the pockets of the mechanic suit he adorned.

He would have continued on with the witty joke he had concocted if she hadn't jolted right up. The sudden speed of her motion seemed to startle both of them as the wounds reminded her of their presence and Raul had to take a step back.

"Shit," she hissed, hat dropping into her lap to show a bed of wild, tangled, and otherwise unappealing red hair. Somehow she powered through the shooting pain and scrambled to her feet, kicking up dust in the process. "Oh Shit, Raul, why didn't you wake me up before now?"

"Oh well I don't know Boss, just never came to mind I suppose" he drawled out slowly, idly shuffling his foot as he watched her.

She stopped running her fingers through her hair to try and untangle it long enough to shoot him a glare. He chuckled, swatting a small bug away.

"I tried to wake you, but you just weren't having any of it. Imagine if you would have gotten that last dose of med-x you wanted."

His grin was light hearted and was nearly enough within itself to make her smile back. Managing to wrangle the mess of hair into a ponytail she shoved her hat back on and checked to make sure her guns were still at her hips before she made quick work of her bed.

"Come on Raul," she was shoving the blanket unceremoniously into her bag, "we're burning daylight."

He hoisted his own bag up onto bony shoulders. "Hey, I wasn't the one laying down on the job, Boss."

Tugging her hat into place she was off at a quick pace. "Watch it Raul, you might just invoke my wrath."

"Your wrath?" The amusement in his voice was palpable. "I tremble to think what that might be, Boss." After what had happened to him during the dropping of the bombs, the raids, the loss, the heart ache and death to even what occurred at Black Mountain Radio, nothing really invoked fear in the worldly man. He had a tough life, knew that life was a bitch and would kick you down every time, a lesion she had yet to learn.

Estil allowed herself a smirk under the brim of her hat. "Test me and find out." The words were playful, thick with her twang once more. In truth, she didn't think she could ever bring herself to really threaten Raul.

They walked on for a while longer with no real special quips, simply joining the rolling Mojave in all of Her splendor. There were a few moments in which Estil stopped and looked around her, at the plants, the cliffs and broken signs and streets of the world that was once glorious. After doing such a thing, she'd change direction ever so slightly and head off again, music flowing from the radio in her backpack.

"Hey, Boss?"  
She turned to look at him, walking backwards on the broken strip of highway that was slowly being consumed by nature. "What can I do ya for?"  
"Do you even know where you're going?"

"Of course I do," there was a slight twinge of uncertainty in her smile that was more than enough to give Raul doubts. "Why, we're goin…that'a way." She threw her thumb over her shoulder to make a general gesture of the direction in which the two were headed.

"Your navigational skills rival those of Christopher Columbus, Boss."

Her head tilted with confusion. "Who's that?"

"Dios mios," he laughed a little, rubbing his face. "He's the man who discovered America."

There was a pause and a soft, "oh," before she cracked a wide smile, pride glowing on her face. "Well thank ya, Raul; I'm glad you have such faith in me." She spun back around to continue walking right, stumbling on her own feet.

He outright laughed at her after that, the laughter slowly turning soft after a moment before he sighed out, still smiling. "You really know how to make a man feel old, Boss. What are they teaching you kids these days?"  
The road shifted and angled down, a few jagged and broken slabs angling up. Raul could see what caught her attention now to make her go this way, off in the distance were two massive statues of…well, he couldn't really see from that distance. On both sides the ground raised above them to create a unique scene.

"I am not a kid, I'm a young adult." Estil pointed out. "Besides, I know a few ways I could make you feel young again."

He only managed to get out an airy chuckle before he stopped. Something was off, the sound, the smell, it wasn't what the two had been traveling in. In a flash he had pulled his guns once more and blasted the head off of a giant worker ant. Estil jumped back a good few steps and watched as the massive creatures seemed to come out of the ground itself. Hoards of ants poured out and headed straight for them, pissed beyond measure.

All too quickly in the fight Estil realized the drawback to her six cylinders, the fact they ran out too quickly and took too long to refill when it came to swarms of enemies. She was working fast, shoving the bullets in with shaking hands, moving back quickly from the mutated ants that were snapping at her legs.

"Shit fucking dammit!" She cursed, kicking an ant in the face, repeating the process before squeaking as pincers grabbed the toe of her boot. Flipping her pistol around she beat it on the head and watched it crack open as the ant released her foot. "It's times like this I wish I had a rifle."

Raul chuckled, handling the situation with a near graceful ease, never wasting a single bullet. "Won't help you any if you don't know how to use it."

Her words were lost to the small explosions as bullets rocketed from her pistols, killing the ants. Soon, the two were left standing there amongst the piles of ants, blood and brain strewn across the small dip they were in. Estil took in a breath and looked down at herself, she wasn't hurt too bad, and the pincers hadn't managed to actually put a hole in her boot. Nerves jumping she continued on, reloading once more.

"Alright, come on darlin', let's get going before any more decide to show their ugly faces." She glanced back only once at the mass grave they had left, feeling something shake within her.

The ground they walked upon took a steep incline as they headed for the statue of two men shaking hands. In truth, Estil had no idea what it was, but her sense of direction hadn't lead her astray too many times, and it did look rather impressive against the soft blue sky. She was humming as she walked, moving with light and careless limbs and Raul just couldn't keep from watching her, the airiness in her motions were captivating if only for the fact that that kind of motion had long died out with most of the dames when the bombs dropped. The southern girl was simply thinking, watching everything and taking a moment where they weren't being killed to appreciate their surroundings.

The NCR station up ahead nearly filled Raul with dread, if only for the fact that she would find too many ways to try and help them, than anything. She was one of those people, always far too to lend a hand without so much as two questions. Those people, he knew from experience were the ones that got in trouble, they put their noses where they didn't belong and got spread too thin, but went out with a smile on their face and guns blazing in their hands.

Maybe to them, that was worth it, but it wasn't to him, not any more.


End file.
